Author: Robert Ayson

John Key is off to New York for the annual Leaders Week and the UN’s 70th anniversary. With a third of New Zealand’s two-year Security Council stint already complete, it’s timely to determine whether a distinct and consistent New Zealand view has been emerging on the Council. 

Undertaking this assessment means getting through a veritable pile of statements which New Zealand’s representatives have made since January. This is a rare pleasure because the Key and McCully years have been lean ones for the production of declaratory foreign policy. At an average of six statements per month, New Zealand is on target in 2015 to exceed the total of Security Council statements made in the previous six years. Of course a very significant increase was always to be expected given New Zealand’s new (albeit temporary) role. But the five statements delivered already by New Zealand’s Foreign Minister himself outnumber the total number of his speeches to all venues in 2013 and 2014 which can be found on the Beehive archive.

Author: Anna Powles

This week Pacific leaders are meeting in Port Moresby for the 46th Pacific Islands Forum. Against the backdrop of the Framework for Pacific Regionalism process, the slogan of this year’s Forum is ‘strengthening connections to enhance Pacific regionalism’. However, the meeting of the pre-eminent regional body is taking place following months of challenges to the regional governance architecture. As Australian scholar Greg Fry argues, what’s at stake in Port Moresby is no less than the future relevance of the Pacific Islands Forum.

New Zealand also has much at stake. New Zealand’s campaign for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) included the message that NZ would be a trusted and independent advocate for non-permanent member states, particularly Small Island and Developing States (SIDS). New Zealand’s success was viewed as an opportunity to champion issues that impact the Pacific at the global level. The collective support of the Pacific Islands Forum was, after all, critical for NZ's UNSC campaign. During its presidency of the Security Council in July, NZ sponsored an open debate on the peace and security challenges facing SIDS with NZ stating it is a Pacific country with a significant stake...in our region. NZ’s credibility in the neighbourhood is at stake now more than ever.

Author: Alyn Ware

In a recent Incline post Angela Woodward notes that New Zealand has joined with other countries in the New Agenda Coalition to strengthen the global call for nuclear disarmament. She suggests two additional actions that New Zealand could take – endorse a humanitarian pledge to ‘fill the legal gap’ required to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons, and provide support (political or financial) to strengthen the capacity of the International Atomic Energy Agency to verify nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation agreements.

Such actions are welcome, but in my view, not likely to contribute much. Pledges are only useful if they initiate concrete action. The nuclear weapon States in 2000 made an unequivocal pledge to achieve the total elimination of nuclear weapons. But without concrete measures and timeframes this pledge has not been implemented.